1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to electronic design automation (EDA). More specifically, this disclosure relates to techniques for generating route variants in a schematic and providing the route variants for use in the schematic.
2. Related Art
Integrated circuit design often involves the use of schematics, which typically contain logical representations of components and wires in integrated circuits. EDA tools are typically used for creating schematics. For example, a schematic editor may allow a designer to create an electronic schematic of an integrated circuit. The electronic schematic may then be used by other EDA tools to simulate the operation of the integrated circuit, create a layout of the integrated circuit, and/or detect errors in the schematic.
To create a schematic, a designer may place graphical objects corresponding to components in an integrated circuit within the schematic and draw lines between the graphical objects to represent wires electrically coupling the components. Furthermore, routing mechanisms in EDA tools may calculate routes for wires that electrically couple components in the schematic based on a set of heuristics and/or design rules for the schematic. For example, a routing mechanism may generate a route between two points in the schematic based on the existence of obstacles, wires, and/or specialized areas in the schematic.
However, routing mechanisms in EDA tools generally provide only one possible route between two points in a schematic. Furthermore, the route may differ between routing mechanisms if each routing mechanism uses a different set of heuristics to generate the route. Consequently, a designer may use an EDA tool that generates routes that may or may not be in line with the designer's preferences.